How to make a camera obscura at home. DIY camera obscura from scrap materials DIY camera obscura out of the box how to

If in your apartment or in the apartment of your friends there is a room with windows on the sunny side, then you can easily turn it into a physical device, which bears the old Latin name “camera obscura” (in Russian this means “dark room”). To do this, you will need to cover the window with a shield, for example, made of plywood or kargon, covered with dark paper, and make a small hole in it. Having closed the window and door of the room on a sunny day so that it is dark in it, you place a large sheet of paper or a sheet opposite the hole, at some distance from it: this is your “screen”. A smaller image of everything that can be seen from the room, looking through the drilled hole, will immediately appear on it. Houses, trees, animals, people will appear on the screen in natural colors, but inverted: houses - upside down, people - upside down, etc.

What does this experience prove? That light spreads in straight lines: rays from the top of the object and rays from the bottom of it intersect in the hole of the shield and go further so that the first rays are at the bottom, and the second at the top. If the rays of light were not straight, but were bent or broken, something completely different would result.

It is remarkable that the shape of the hole does not affect the resulting images at all. Whether you drill a round hole or make a square, triangular, hexagonal or similar hole, the image you get on the screen is the same. Have you ever observed oval light circles on the ground under a dense tree? These are nothing more than images of the sun drawn with rays that pass through various spaces between the leaves. They are round because the sun is round, and elongated because they fall to the ground obliquely. Place a sheet of paper at right angles to the rays of the sun - you will get completely round spots on it. And during a solar eclipse, when the dark ball of the moon moves toward the sun, obscuring it and turning it into a bright crescent, round spots under the trees turn into small crescents.

The device that photographers at the beginning of the century used is nothing more than the same camera obscura, but only a lens is inserted into its hole to make the image brighter and clearer. In such a chamber, frosted glass is inserted into the back wall, on which images are obtained - of course, upside down; the photographer can only view it by covering the camera and himself with dark matter so that extraneous light does not interfere with the eyes.

You can make some semblance of such a photographic camera yourself...

Materials and accessories :

Two sheets of thick cardboard measuring 48x37 cm and 30.5x19.5 cm, glue, adhesive tape, measuring ruler, pencil, knife.

Manufacturing

Draw a camera layout on the first sheet of cardboard (see figure).
Draw diagonals on the square protrusion of the reamer and draw a circle with a diameter of 1 cm centered at the intersection of the diagonals.
Using a knife, cut out the entire development and the circle on the protrusion.
Make cuts with a knife along the fold lines indicated by the dotted line, up to half the thickness of the cardboard.
Bend the walls and glue them together using paper strips or adhesive tape.
Cover the round hole with thick black paper.
Insert a movable screen into the open end of the box, which you make from a second sheet of cardboard, having previously drawn a scan on it (Fig.).
Cut out this scan and the square shown inside the dotted line.
Cover the square with writing paper and then grease it with oil. You will get a screen.
After making cuts along the dotted lines with a knife, bend the walls and glue them together. You will get a second box, which should fit into the first box quite freely.
In the center of the circle, first pierce the black paper with a thin needle. The camera obscura is ready.

Working with the camera

Point the camera obscura at some brightly lit objects and capture images of the objects on the screen by sliding the screen in or out.
Enlarge the size of the round hole in the black paper and watch how the image of the objects changes.
Observe how the clarity of the image changes with the distance to objects.
Get images of moving objects, for example, on the street. Do the images come out in color?
Replace the oiled paper with plain clean paper and draw the outline of any object on it.
Try turning a camera obscura into a camera.

Photography is, in general, a miracle. Art that is created using technical means. And these technical means (cameras) can be fantastically simple. In this article we will tell you how to make a camera obscura (pinhole) using improvised means - a matchbox or a tin can.

Don't laugh - such cameras give very interesting pictures, despite their primitiveness. But primitive does not mean bad, because the paintings of ancient people and the sculptures of the great Pablo Picasso were also made using improvised means, and their artistic value is probably not disputed by anyone. Of course, shooting with a pinhole is not fun for everyone. But any art usually begins precisely where the amateur operates - that is, a person who sincerely likes what he does.

So, what is a camera obscura, and how can one be made? Its main difference from other cameras is the absence of lenses. The role of the lens in the pinhole is played by a hole with perfectly smooth edges, drilled or pierced in the camera body. Some versions of these cameras may use film. In others - photo paper. The most common pinhole camera is made from a matchbox, to which feeding and receiving film cassettes are attached. Let's tell you in order about how to make them.

How to make a camera obscura: option number 1

A 36x24 mm hole is cut in the bottom of the box. This bottom is a clamping frame for the film. The inner walls of the box are painted black to protect the space for the film from sunlight. A piece of cardboard (shutter holder), also with a cut window, is attached with electrical tape to the outer part of the box with a rectangular window cut in it. And between the shutter holder and the box itself, a shutter made of opaque material is inserted.

The supply and receiving cameras are tightly taped to the body of our camera with electrical tape. Once again we focus on the density of the winding: if there are gaps, the photographs will not turn out! The supply cassette contains fresh, unused (unexposed) film. You can buy a standard charged cassette or charge it yourself (such cassette devices are found in some models of old Soviet cameras). As for the receiving cassette, similar devices are also found in some older cameras.

And finally, the last stage - a piece of foil with a tiny hole pierced with a needle is glued onto the box, which should be located in the center of the 36x24 mm hole cut in the lid. The edges of the small hole should be as smooth as possible. Film is loaded into the camera and the box is closed. All! You can shoot. One detail - it’s better to photograph with a pinhole camera at long shutter speeds. And then the result will be amazing.

How to make a camera obscura: option number 2

The second version of the pinhole camera, which we will talk about here, is very simple. To create it you just need cardboard, scissors and glue. It is better that the cardboard from which the camera box is assembled is black on at least one side. Why is this necessary? Black color neutralizes any internal reflections as much as possible. The insides of a regular camera are traditionally black for the same reason.

If the material for your experiments is a ready-made box, you should paint it on the inside with black paint, just like in the first version of the pinhole, which we have already told you about here. The already assembled product is carefully taped with black tape to prevent insidious sunlight from reaching the film, which can expose it.

To make a box, we will need three cardboard rectangles 10x12.5 cm, two rectangles 12.5x12.5 cm, one 12.5x15 cm, two strips 2.5x12.5 cm and two 2. 5x10 cm.

First we make a removable camera back. It is assembled from a 12.5x15 cm rectangle and a 2.5 cm strip. In the middle of the rectangle, draw a 10x12.5 cm rectangle. We use a ready-made template. We place a 2.5 cm strip along the drawn lines and fasten with small pieces of tape. Checking the internal size. It should be 10x12.5 cm. This is necessary so that the film fits freely. The joints must be properly taped with black tape.
Making a camera box. Place the front of the camera with the black side up. We lay two 12.5x12.5 cm rectangles and two 10x12.5 cm rectangles close together. Glue them together with tape. Then we assemble the box and put the backdrop inside. The box is secured around with a rubber band. This ensures that the backdrop fits tightly into the box. Use several pieces of tape to secure the box to ensure proper gluing. All corners are carefully taped with the same tape.
Let's drill a hole. A small square piece of metal (bronze, aluminum, or other thin metal) is taken and placed on a wooden or cardboard backing. A nail is inserted into the eraser of the pencil and a hole is gradually drilled. One little trick - the pencil should be held vertically. If the hole is uneven, this will affect the quality of the picture.
Connect the square to the hole. We attach a piece of metal with a hole to the box of our camera with tape. For the shutter, glue a piece of tape at one end. When lowered, it will close the hole and act as a shutter. That's it, the pinhole camera is ready to take magical pictures.

There is an expression: “photographic precision” because it is believed that nothing can be more objective than photography. But actually it is not. What photographs convey is far from reality itself. Perhaps, photographs similar to Vermeer's paintings more accurately correspond to it. You can get them using a tin can with a neat hole. How exactly, says NS photo editor Vyacheslav LAGUTKIN.
What did Leonardo da Vinci encrypt?
Heavy army transport rolled through the summer. Inside, in complete darkness, a conscript soldier was lost. There was a smell of heated tarpaulin, tires, boots and road. Suddenly, at a turn, a ray of sun hit through a hole in the awning, and inverted images of houses, trees, and figures of people ran along the side of the truck. So twenty years ago I came across the phenomenon of the camera obscura.

This visual effect has been known to mankind for thousands of years. The Chinese philosopher Mo Tsu described this phenomenon in the fifth century BC. Aristotle, observing the same effect, was never able to comprehend its cause. Individual mentions of the creation of the first apparatus reproducing this phenomenon point to Roger Bacon (13th century). Leonardo da Vinci wrote about how to use this device in painting in his encrypted works, but they were able to unravel his secret writing only in 1797. Nevertheless, information about how you can use a camera obscura to copy reality spread among artists even before the beginning of the 17th century. In a dark room with a hole in the wall, the outside view was projected onto the opposite wall. All that remained was to select the paints and apply them to the image. Many landscapes, portraits, and still lifes were painted this way. The use of a camera obscura is clearly visible in the work of the great Dutch artist Jan Vermeer. Experts confirm that, for example, in the portrait of “The Girl in the Red Hat,” Vermeer conveys diffuse highlights that are characteristic of a pinhole. The same technique is also indicated by numerous clusters of light spots in another painting by Vermeer, “View of Delft.”

By the mid-17th century, portable pinhole cameras appeared, equipped with lenses to increase color brightness, sharpness and contrast.

Rear view of a pinhole camera (later called pinhole) with the top and back covers removed

Nowadays, photographers, fed up with the harsh, textured image of conventional lens lenses, have rediscovered the camera obscura, which is now called a pinhole or stenope.

This is not a can! It's a camera!
What attracted Vermeer's camera obscura? And why do modern photographers abandon expensive lenses for a box with a hole? The camera obscura has many advantages: one of them is the production of an unusually soft and plastic image, devoid of excess specificity. All this, of course, provided that the dimensions of the hole are accurate and the edges are even.

Another advantage is that the stenope does not need to be sharpened, because there is no lens in it, and the depth of field is infinite. That is, everything is sharp - from what is located a few centimeters away to the horizon.

Lyudmila Zinchenko. Red Square. 2008 Silver Camera Award. Photo taken by pinhole

Optical distortions, such as chromatic aberration (a light fringe along the contour of a contrasting image), will never bother a photographer with a stenope, unlike colleagues using lens lenses. Also, if the film is placed at the same distance from the hole (bent in an arc), perspective distortions will be corrected.

You can make your own walls from coffee and soda cans, barrels and refrigerators, cars and vans, matchboxes and shoe boxes. And, of course, from cameras (one must keep in mind that the larger the pinhole, the more detailed the image).

How to make a camera obscura with your own hands


A Canon 400 D SLR digital camera was taken as a sample for making a pinhole based on a camera. In its place there can be any camera with changeable optics


In the cover-plug, which is used to protect the camera when the lens is removed, a hole with a diameter of up to 1 cm must be made exactly in the center

The pinhole lens - a plate with a hole - must be attached from the inside, that is, to the side of the plug facing the inside of the camera. It is better if the surface of the plug, or “lens,” is not shiny, but black or matte

This completes the lens for the stenographer

The main thing in making a stenope is the hole itself. The optimal hole size is from 0.2 to 1 mm. Exceeding these limits can lead to irreparable loss of sharpness. The thinner the plate in which the hole is made, the better for the image; even edges of the hole are also very important. Traditionally, the hole is made with a pin in a piece of foil, but the optimal solution is a thin metal plate in which a laser burns a perfect hole. But if engineer Garin is not in the immediate circle, it doesn’t matter. You can drill a hole in a relatively thick plate of metal and make a puncture in the bottom of the hole. Remove irregularities with sandpaper. All. The “lens” for the stenograph is ready, all that remains is to select and prepare the camera.

Such a camera can be almost any camera. If it is a camera with interchangeable optics such as “Zenit”, “Kiev”, Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Minolta, “Zorkiy”, FED, etc., it is enough to remove the lens and use a cap, which is used to cover the camera for protection when the lens is removed. A hole with a diameter of up to 1 cm must be made in the plug exactly in the center, and the “lens” for the stenope - a plate with a hole - must be attached from the inside, that is, to the side of the plug facing the inside of the chamber. It is important to ensure that the inside of the plug, as well as the “lens,” does not have light shiny surfaces; it is better if they are black and matte. Helpers here are sandpaper, velvet, paint, glue. You can buy end caps at any major camera store and they are cheap. A very simple option is to cover the hole under the lens on the camera with black paper with a hole of the required size exactly in the middle.
If the camera lens is non-removable, you can dismantle it or simply remove the lenses and aperture blades and install a plate with a hole in it. “Lyubitel”, “Smena”, “Iskra”, and “Moscow” are suitable for this purpose.

The photographer will use a tin can or his own room as a wall, having previously darkened it and made a hole in the curtains opposite a huge sheet of photosensitive material (photo paper or film), rolled out across the entire wall, will make one hole or several in different places (the image is bizarrely repeated and superimposed on itself), depends only on his capabilities and imagination. Finally, you can order a branded pinhole online - a beautiful wooden box with a perfect hole in the side. The pleasure is not cheap - on average 200 euros.

Features of pinhole photography
Having chosen the subject of photography, you need to point the pinhole at it (after setting it motionless) and open the hole. With long exposures, film of different sensitivities, for example 100 and 400 units, is equalized, which eliminates the need to choose. In good daylight, the shutter speed can be 10-15 seconds, in bright sun - 2-4 seconds, while in the evening or in a dimly lit room - from 8-15 minutes (dim electric light) to 1 hour or more. At the end of shooting, you should close and move the film to the next frame if you do not want to achieve fancy effects through multiple exposures. The exact time of shooting, of course, can be determined by a camera with exposure metering or an exposure meter (branded pinholes even have special signs for calculating shutter speed), but selecting shutter speed experimentally (several dozen frames in different lighting conditions) is quite reliable and simple, especially if the pinhole is homemade.

A photo taken with the pinhole whose manufacturing process is shown above

What is so attractive about this type of photography? Firstly, incomprehensible simplicity: no complex mechanics, electronics, autofocus multi-lens optics - just a box with a hole and film loaded into it.

Secondly, unpredictability: the absence of a viewfinder, and therefore the ability to build a composition in the frame, implies shooting “at random”, “on a whim” - with a live, immediate picture as a result.
And, finally, thirdly, contemplation: long exposures, characteristic of pinhole, do not tolerate fuss and easily set one in a leisurely philosophical mood.

A pinhole, unlike a camera, allows you to capture not a moment, but a state. In fact, this temple on Valaam is full. But only those who stood still for an hour appeared in the form of penumbra on the film, and those who came out are not visible on the film

Glossary of photographic terms
Pinhole(from the English pinhole, pin - pin, hole - hole) - a hollow darkened chamber with a small hole (often made with a pin) to obtain an image when light passes through the hole. Used in artistic photography. The same as stenope (from the French Sténopé).
Obscura, camera obscura(from Latin obscurus - dark) is an incorrect but widespread name for pinhole. Historically, a pinhole was a camera with a small lens rather than a pinhole.
Multiple exposure-- multiple shooting per frame.
Exposure metering-- measurement of light, taking into account the sensitivity of the film or matrix to determine shutter speed (time of shooting) and aperture (size of opening for shooting). When shooting with a pinhole, only the shutter speed is determined, since the aperture, i.e. the hole, is constant.
Light meter-- exposure metering device.
Chromatic aberration-- optical distortion in the form of a light outline along the edge of a contrasting image (the border between light and dark). Occurs due to differences in light wavelengths.

In this tutorial we will show you how to make a camera obscura using a very simple method. We only need a protective cover from the camera, but not the one from the lens, but one that covers the camera mount.

Many applications have an effect that simulates this camera. These effects are used quite often. However, there is no effect that can exactly replicate a photo taken with a pinhole camera, so we are going to show you how to make a camera at home from your DSLR.

We only need a protective cover from the camera body, a piece of the wall from an aluminum can, a needle or pin, scissors, some dark electrical tape, fine sandpaper and a drill.

The result, of course, will not be perfect: the distance between the cover and the sensor on most SLR cameras is not very suitable for obtaining the effect we need, and this problem is not so easy to correct. But if you don't mind the impressionistic lack of focus too much, you'll find it fun to take pictures like this.

How to make a camera obscura, step by step.

1. Make a hole in the center of the protective cover.

It should be approximately 5 mm. It is best to use a 5mm drill for this. Make sure that the cover is removed from the camera when drilling! Then be sure to cut off the chips sticking out on the hole and sand it with sandpaper. This must be done to prevent these pieces from getting inside the camera or, even worse, onto the matrix.

2. Micro puncture.

Now we take a piece of aluminum can or foil and pierce a hole in the center with a No. 7 needle. Now we process it with sandpaper so that everything is smooth and beautiful. Using electrical tape, attach the foil to the lid so that the centers of all holes coincide.

3. We remove.

The tiny aperture we've got tells us that the shutter speed needs to be long, which means we'll need a tripod. You will only have to use manual settings, and turn on the histogram on the display to determine the correct exposure and composition. Try experimenting with flash for additional lighting.

How to learn photography from ZERO?. Learn to get EVERYTHING out of your camera!!!
"Digital SLR for a beginner, or how to take great photos. Level I

I already wrote in one of the articles about the history of the development of photography, where I also talked about the camera obscura. In this article I will tell you how to make a camera obscura from a matchbox and homemade materials. It should be noted that such a camera does not have depth of field, but this does not deprive the photograph taken with a pinhole of volume, not at all, rather it fills the picture with its unique artistic atmosphere. The principle of operation is very simple, light from the subject of shooting passes through the hole and hits the photosensitive material, that is, the film, which results in a kind of projection of the image.

What do you need to make such a camera?

Matchbox

Film 35mm

A little plastic from any bottle

Any aluminum can

Stationery knife

Empty film container

Insulating tape

Pencil

Scissors

Ruler

Photo #1

The first thing you need to do is mark and cut out a frame window in the inside of the box, for me it was 36 x 24 mm, but here you can make the shape arbitrarily, some also make 24 x 24 mm, as you like.
Photo No. 2

After you have cut out the frame window, you need to paint the inside of the box black, you can use any paint, marker or ink. I used matte acrylic spray paint, I didn’t try glossy, in my opinion it will create unnecessary glare. You may notice that the edges of the frame window on the inside of the box are torn, this will reflect in the photo and give a more artistic look. If desired, they can be smoothed with a file or a utility knife.
Photo No. 3

How to rewind a frame? In order to control this process, the following is done: cut out a thin ribbon from a plastic bottle and smooth it with your fingers, so it curls. We sharpen it on one of the edges.
Photo No. 4

We attach it to the barrel with electrical tape and insert it into the hole in the film, as shown in the photo. The plastic tape must be secured well so that it does not jump out of the hole when rewinding, and you also need to make sure that the film does not tear. When rewinding, clicks will be heard, so if you have a frame window measuring 36 x 24 mm, you need to count eight clicks (nine to be on the safe side) and you can photograph a new frame. If the frame window is 24 x 24 mm, six clicks are counted.
Photo #5

Let's return to the matchbox, now we need to prepare the outer part, make markings and cut a rectangular hole 8 x 5 mm in the center.
Photo #6

The most important detail of the camera is a correctly made hole, which is responsible for the sharpness of the frame; the smaller it is, the sharper the frame will be. You need to cut a 15 x 15 mm square from an aluminum can and carefully pierce the hole with a needle, then be sure to remove any burrs from the back side. And if you bring the aluminum plate to the window, the hole should be barely visible.
Photo No. 7

Be sure to paint everything black, the fewer light areas there are, the better the quality of the frame, you also need to paint the hole itself with a black marker so that the sun’s rays do not glare when hitting the metal surface.
Photo #8

Let's start assembling our miracle camera, using electrical tape to place an aluminum blank with a hole on the outside of the matchbox, preferably fixing it exactly in the center so that the light beam spreads across the entire frame. Let's take another matchbox and make markings, cut out a 15 x 8 mm rectangle, cut the cardboard and attach it to our camera obscura with electrical tape. Another important detail is the shutter itself, thick cardboard 10 x 30 mm should tightly cover the camera opening.
Photo #9

To rewind, you need to make a handle out of cardboard and tighten it with electrical tape, the size is approximately 5 x 20 mm.
Photo No. 10

We install the film and secure the inside of the box, and do not forget to check the operation of the frame counter; if you hear clicks, then you can secure everything with electrical tape.
Photo No. 11

It is impossible for the light to hit the film; it is advisable to use black electrical tape, but due to lack of availability, I had to use green, do not skimp on electrical tape because the quality of the pictures is at stake. We secure everything.
Photo No. 12

You need to take pictures from a tripod or with a good focus; the slightest movement blurs the frame and makes it unclear. When photographing with a pinhole, you need to be able to determine by eye how many seconds to open the shutter, and you can count the seconds to yourself. If the day is sunny and the film sensitivity is one hundred, I open the shutter for four, five seconds, if it’s cloudy, seven, eight. I got some good shots the first time. Try it, I'm sure you won't regret it. Here are some of my works made with a pinhole camera that I assembled with my own hands from a matchbox.